New Report Finds a High Pass-Through Rate for California's Residential PV Rebate Programs

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) announced October 14th the release of a new report: <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001tBuL1SYaNZhbPeySXygnD5CnoH3FoukM3-ezg4tlWeoU1btR53UdxS0kx4xtSYfZpM0UZpRmjpD6zPBSqbqfINY1dzB8xY710kmfB0jh8FESc8hSt0s8VXkV3-IIHWk47waCCplgCdVk3zyAxguU9DydxzE2ojAJkhWTFelFvUjUB0qA-CvAqXQnyxuI1YGlr-TgqhdT24e-IfYvCyVixLfcri5yceeOoCAOLcsKKG0J8eSiV2uHW-dSlqyK0ovSUnXiRIrpTxFSqmmnQxrGebzeC0e7ynOCj96DnpmC59iAWXY-G0Nkg2a3s9OpCZuoDxumlkndAs6dsq5Wb4RpF1dTkORs6GxsVzM5n1-ItpgHIZ4l9S-lZHsE_JSf8m-qN4OLiziCcgmvCz58RfiOuVaGx31sGtmT5jbeh4ycaazu_vZYW7n3fBSiDsxEehfeCqdhTHWUvkc=&c=BjNorBTFeB959qazq7P51vpyg-w_QFv5C8qSCSC2stVtSk9-DpNujg==&ch=VQF8jNhFnw8KRHIbxF75R5mXhtMHkdYyoNpVBhMh1ByBmrIAzMYvhQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Incentive Pass-through for Residential Solar Systems in California , by Varun Rai and Changgui Dong at the University of Texas at Austin, and Ryan Wiser of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems has grown rapidly over the past decade, partly as a result of government incentives. In the United States, the California Solar Initiative and its predecessor, the Emerging Renewables Program, have collectively been the nation's largest and longest-running state-level residential PV rebate programs. The degree to which these incentives have been passed on to PV customers, however, has not been studied systematically. Specifically, if PV installers adjust their pre-incentive PV prices to account for available incentives--for example, increasing prices when incentives are higher--they would retain some of the incentives. The extent and variation of these practices is the central question addressed in this study. Incentive pass-through has implications for ongoing and future PV incentive programs, given that the goal of these programs is to improve the customer economics of PV. Understanding incentive pass-through also illuminates the level of installer competition present in local PV markets and can suggest which types of policies or policy designs might be most effective in a given market. Researchers from LBNL and The University of Texas at Austin analyzed incentive pass-through for a subset of California's residential PV systems. The results show a high historical pass-through rate of nearly 100% for California's rebate programs, with variation among counties. In general, these results suggest that installers considered PV rebates as outside factors when making pricing decisions, and suggest a reasonably competitive market and--at least from the perspective of incentive pass-through--a well-functioning subsidy program. Nonetheless, caution should be exercised before making broad inferences based on these results alone. The estimated pass-through rates may not apply outside of California or to all types of third-party-owned PV systems. In addition, the results focus narrowly on the pass-through of solar rebates. Broader "value-based pricing" is not evaluated, which would consider the combined impact of state incentives, electric utility bill savings, and tax incentives. The report, along with a two-page fact sheet and a summary slide deck, is available for download on the LBNL <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001tBuL1SYaNZhbPeySXygnD5CnoH3FoukM3-ezg4tlWeoU1btR53UdxS0kx4xtSYfZpM0UZpRmjpD6zPBSqbqfINY1dzB8xY710kmfB0jh8FESc8hSt0s8VXkV3-IIHWk47waCCplgCdVk3zyAxguU9DydxzE2ojAJkhWTFelFvUjUB0qA-CvAqXQnyxuI1YGlr-TgqhdT24e-IfYvCyVixLfcri5yceeOoCAOLcsKKG0J8eSiV2uHW-dSlqyK0ovSUnXiRIrpTxFSqmmnQxrGebzeC0e7ynOCj96DnpmC59iAWXY-G0Nkg2a3s9OpCZuoDxumlkndAs6dsq5Wb4RpF1dTkORs6GxsVzM5n1-ItpgHIZ4l9S-lZHsE_JSf8m-qN4OLiziCcgmvCz58RfiOuVaGx31sGtmT5jbeh4ycaazu_vZYW7n3fBSiDsxEehfeCqdhTHWUvkc=&c=BjNorBTFeB959qazq7P51vpyg-w_QFv5C8qSCSC2stVtSk9-DpNujg==&ch=VQF8jNhFnw8KRHIbxF75R5mXhtMHkdYyoNpVBhMh1ByBmrIAzMYvhQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website .

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New Report Finds a High Pass-Through Rate for California’s Residential PV Rebate Programs

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